Happy Thanksgiving!

It is Thanksgiving Day in EB, NM.  The sun is coming over the horizon and there isn't a cloud in the sky.  Going to be a good day.  We have been busy the last two weeks or so-birthdays-pool-shopping-gambling-shopping, etc.  Oh! And making jewelry like crazy to hurry and get into a box headed north. I am grateful for a grandma in Gillette that took the littlest two gboys for a week while Whitney had surgery.  Although I'm having a hard time not seeing them this time of year it was nice not to have the 16 hours drive.  No more gkids for us! (ages 28-22months)  Bring on the ggkids!! (ages 1,2,3 is current ggkid count)

Last spring we didn't get to go gambling (Sharon, Deb, Kathy, me, Wyn) so we planned to go this November and then eat at Tuscano's (a Brazilian salad/food bar.)  Well that didn't work but Hard Rock Casino likes Kathy and wanted to give her room for two nights.  What were we waiting for? She asked me to drive and away we went. Here is the fairly empty van as we head out Wednesday for Albuquerque.  Oh yeah!  That was also the week for the Bead Show!!  heheheh!  And we NEEDED teacups from 2nd hand stores and material and shopping/gambling/shopping/gambling........

We had a blast.  Of course it didn't take long before  I had to split a couple of the sisters throwing Debbie in the VERY back where we hoped she would be good.  NOT!!!!  The good news was Debbie (from the back) taught Kathy how to use the gps in the van.  Got to ABQ in time for lunch at Rudy's BBQ and then some serious craft shopping.

Then back to Isleta to check in and let Kathy do a little gambling (we want the to CONTINUE liking Kathy!)  I took my airbed so there was actually room for one more.  Next time???  Thursday we headed out to the 2nd had stores and bought teacups, pitchers, etc for teacup lights.  I though we might have gotten 20 or so; but am afraid when we get them out it'll be more like 40+.  :)  After that we went to  Tuscanos Brazilian Grill for lunch.  60+ hot/cold salad bar and "Cabana Boys" that bring meat out and slice it for you.  Then you take your little tongs, nip it up and mmmmmm enjoy!

This was Grilled pineapple with brown sugar glaze.

 Chicken heart, bacon wrapped turkey, teriyaki something.........

Grab it Kathy!

 There was pork, steak, roast, poultry..........awesome (note to self - do NOT eat the salad bar until you have some meat!)

 At the end in honor of Sharon we had a toast and apple pit carmel ice creamish SIN!!


One will do nicely, thanks!

 Notice Deb reaching??? She wasn't going to have any.  Ok so she only had a tiny bite!!

Wed while shopping Deb bought us each blinking Christmas necklaces and we wore them to keep track of one another.  That didn't work for us but sure made others happy to see us.

(AND then there's the story of Linda/Maurene getting locked in the elevator with the light off!  Oops!! What happens in ABQ stays in.............)

 So anyway before we left Deb rounded us all up in the bathroom for show and tell.  Me?  I was worried that the camera sound was on.......................

 We got home in time for dinner at the Legion.  What did the guys do while we were gone?  Beats me - let'em get their own blog!!  :)

Yes, we shall do this again.



And then there is Debbie at Happy Hour Tuesday Night....................Do you GET why we made her get in the back NOW???????

And then there is one of my favorite fellow cancer survivors - Carol.  Here we are at Relay in June.  

They made it to EB Monday for awhile.  Good to see them.

ANYWHOO..... 

 HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!

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Bountiful Basket BIA (Las Cruces) Style

Ken and I went to Las Cruces Saturday to pick up 7 baskets.  In addition we wanted to visit Koeta - the dialysis gal we met last year.  She has had many, many hospitiliations during the summer.  We are not sure that will turn out that good.  They were working on her when we got there - we didn't get to see her.

The drop time changed Friday afternoon to 4pm.  I didn't encourage anyone else to ride down as I wasn't sure what we might face.  It's a good thing.  The pickup was packed.  Friday Ken took the MH spare tire out and we stopped at Carmen's (1 tostado and Ken's GC smothered everything burrito) and picked up a big 64 qt cooler.  Carmen had ordered 3 baskets. We took our 12 volt one and another one someone threw away from a Omaha Steak delivery.  In addition to 7 baskets we were picking up 48# of pickling cukes (no silly just to EAT - no pickles for us.); two flats of blackberries and a 30 gal garbage can for Dave to fill with squished cans and 12 bunches of Pro's Ranch radishes!  
This is the third sight I have visited in New Mexico and yes they do things different here - not necessarily wrong, just different.  This sight at the BIA is a small site when you need to keep the produce out of the sun.  They use more tables than we do in WY and I DO like that there are two places to checkout each time. (I'll probably send this one on to Whit/Sellenee.)

The truck was due at 4.  We got there at 3:45 and were able to each pack 1 box of broccoli.  The truck was unloaded.  It drives from Rozwell and they are attempting to fine tune the times a bit more.  I understand it was a tiny bit better this trip unlike two weeks ago.  Because of their size they are capped at 70 or 72 backets.  There is only about 8' behind me of usable space.


And the 8' is full of produce and extras.  They use more tables - A VERY Good idea for bagging produce/separating bananas, etc.!!
The pg one is the do-VSC.  The other one is the backup they are training to take over in a few weeks.

I think all the NM sites number their baskets and assign you a number.  Our numbers were varied for the seven: 7, 41, 62, 69, 39, 16, 26
First some of the blackberries were moldy so each clam shell was gone through,  Then there was the Brussels sprout decision - 12? 15? It was actually 19 and each basket was gone over three times just for that.  Then came the Bosc pear decision - 4?  Is there enough?  (IMHO) the decision to cut back to 2 was done prematurely - resulting in bosc pears to be gone through 3 times.  And finally the Asian pears - substitutes for grape tomatoes????  Asian pears were sent through three times also.  (Oh well, not my problem).  By this time it was about 5 pm and we still weren't done - extra brocolli for spaghetti squash and a few other minor glitches.

Notes for next time:
1. If Carmen orders 3 take her cooler THEN - it holds three baskets nicely!
2. Don't let Ken destroy the Steak Cooler - Worked for 1 basket.  The 12 volt cooler holds three baskets of perishables nicely.
3. Push hard this week to get a BU signed up!! We NEED to get the drop in TRC on the truck schedule.
4-22.  Repeat #3.

We sold cukes before we left the site.  There are cukes at the clubhouse to munch on and I foresee cukes/onions/vinegar at lot in our future.  Yum!